The State of the Block: Success and Competitions.

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I am immensely proud of the community I co-founded with @rhondak. Since I created The Writers’ Block Discord server back on September 25th, our numbers have grown to just over 330. Even so, it still feels very personal, and I count many of its members as my extended family.

Prior to the group forming, I had never written any fiction. @rhondak saw something in my writing, and it is thanks to her that I put key to digital paper and began this journey. The members of The Writers’ Block have encouraged me to continue writing. They freely edit my submissions, point me down the right path and have helped me enormously in developing as a writer. It is thanks to them I feel confident to put out pieces of work, proud for them to live forever on the blockchain. This same service is offered to everyone who wants to improve their writing skills, not just in fiction. We cover poetry, non-fiction, technical, screenwriting and songwriting as well as an English language channel to assist those who's primary language is not English.

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Many TWB members have entered writing contests over the past few months, winning outright or placing second and third. As a group we help to edit, polish and suggest changes to work before it is posted on Steem. I believe this, together with each writer's natural talent, plays a large part in their success.

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Speaking of success, please allow me a spot of self indulgence. I was excited to watch the Hardfork-Series trailer while at Steemfest. Afterwards I made a point of meeting and speaking with @dougkarr - writer and director on the project. I was thrilled last week when the @hardfork-series account posted a writing contest, in which authors were tasked with imagining a day in their life in the year 2029. More importantly, authors were to end their post by making up a curse word that might be popular in 2029. The Writers’ Block rose to the challenge and many of our members submitted stories. We had enormous fun making up curse words, which we still use today in chat. Although we were all competition to each other, we treated these works just like any other: we continued to edit and critique, yet still rooted for each other. It is my immense pleasure to announce that all three winning submissions came from The Writers’ Block. Read about the results HERE.

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We believe that contests play an integral part in rallying writers together for a little friendly rivalry. As they write their very best in order to try to win, their writing improves and skills are polished. Several of us at The Writers’ Block run competitions, such as @carolkean’s Rhino Writing Contest.

Carol’s latest one uses the line His name is in my house, on a hard drive, somewhere as a prompt. There is a prize fund of 30 SBD up for grabs. Click HERE to read more.

@pegasusphysics recently announced an interesting new contest. Called the Steem-Powered Interactive Fiction Contest, this first round requires a logline. A Logline is a one sentence hook for a story (usually a script) that succinctly identifies the protagonist, their goal, the antagonist, and the central conflict. The winning logline will be the basis of this story. In this round 10 SBD is up for grabs. Click HERE to read more.

I have my regular Art Prompt Writing Contest. On alternate weeks I run an art contest, looking for piece of artwork or photograph to be used as a writing prompt.

A total of 50 SBD is up for grabs, plus a little extra from the post payout. Click HERE to read more.

Finally, keep a look out for @tinypaleokitchen’s contest, coming soon. Called Reflections, this one calls for a collaboration between an artist and a writer. One post will focus on writing, and one post will focus on art, complementing each other. 50 SBD in total is up for grabs. Click HERE to read more.

By @GMuxx

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Are you a writer or keen to learn? Do you wish to join a community of like-minded individuals who can help hone your writing skills in the fields of fiction, non-fiction, technical, poetry, songwriting or playwriting? Join us at The Writers' Block on Discord and follow our community account @thewritersblock.